Our whirlwind concert tour of Macedonia has been jam packed and great fun.
Each day has started with a continental breakfast (given that we are on the continent of Europe, I now understand the meaning of that term) at the hotel, catered by a business owned by the tuba player in the Macedonian Opera Orchestra. We have then proceeded with rehearsals to touch up the pieces which we haven’t played with our supplemental musicians from Macedonia.
Our concerts in Stip, Kocani and Bitola were very enthusiastically received by the local communities.
Our concert in Bitola tested our resilience, as gusts of wind threatened to blow our music all the way back to Skopje. Thank heavens for clothes pins! Bujar and I were interviewed by Macedonian television, and they were quite interested to learn of our connection to Macedonia through Vlad Lazarevski and my brother.
At the end of the Bitola concert we decided to take it up a notch by having the entire brass section play the last stanza of the “Can Can” while standing up. It was quite a sight to take in, with the trombone players pounding it out, slides flying and eyebrows lifting to help out on the higher notes!
Yesterday afternoon, before boarding the bus for Bitola, we hunted down (at my suggestion), one of Skopje’s prime cultural attractions: a European style ninepin bowling centre. Having spent a large part of my teenage years working in bowling centres in Saskatoon, I was somewhat in my element. Although they were technically closed for the summer, the proprietor kindly allowed us to throw a few balls to get a feel for the game. As it turned out, one of the locals hanging out there was the World Junior Ninepin bowling champion, a 19 year old or so fellow whose picture on the wall of the centre gave evidence of his accomplishment. For the legion of bowling geeks out there following this blog, ninepins involves, yes, 9 pins arranged in a diamond formation, 1-2-3-2-1, at which a ball about 7 inches in diameter (a bit larger than a 5-pin, Canadian bowling ball, and a bit smaller than a 10 pin, U.S. style ball) is rolled. The lanes and approaches are made from hard vinyl, not wood or plastic as in North America, and no special sliding shoes are worn, so the locals generally deliver the ball and then stumble for a pace or two. It’s a very difficult game – in the 20 minutes or so that we spent there, I did not see a single strike. I have no idea of the scoring system. I was pleased to add this to my “life list” of bowling centres visited.
And now we must prepare for our big, final concert tonight in Skopje at the Suli An!
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| Ninepins diorama |
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| Start practising for the next championship! |